Boston Playwrights’ Theatre

Kate Snodgrass

Producing Director

KATE SNODGRASS is the Artistic Director of Boston Playwrights' Theatre and of the Elliot Norton Award-winning Boston Theater Marathon (which she also co-founded). She is a Professor in Playwriting at the renowned Graduate Creative Writing Department of Boston University. Kate is a former Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival's Chair of the National Playwriting Program, a former Vice President of StageSource, Inc., and a member of Actors' Equity, A.F.T.R.A., and the Dramatists' Guild. She is the 2001 recipient of the “Theatre Hero” Award from StageSource in Boston. She is a Stanford Calderwood Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company. Her most recent play, The Glider, premiered at Boston Playwrights' Theatre in Oct./Nov. 2004 to excellent reviews; the play was nominated for the National American Critics Association's "Steinberg New Play Award" and was the 2005 IRNE award-winner for "Best New Play--Small Company." Snodgrass is the author of the Actors' Theatre of Louisville's Heideman Award-winning and much-anthologized play Haiku. The play has been performed around the world and translated into German, Portuguese, and Gaelic, and the film “Haiku” premiered at the 1995 Boston Film Festival. Snodgrass's play Observatory Conditions, produced by Boston Playwrights‚ Theatre in 1999, was the winner of an IRNE Award for "Best New Play", the 1998 Provincetown Theatre Company's Playwriting Award Competition, and the "Best Play Award" at the 2000 Southeast Theatre Conference. Snodgrass was a member of the former Circle Repertory Theatre Lab. Her short plays L’Air Des Alpes, Que Sera, Sera, and Critics’ Circle have been published/anthologized by Cedar Press, Dramatic Publishing Company, and Bakers Plays, respectively, and have been performed all over the United States. As an actor, Snodgrass studied at Kansas University, The Wichita State University, The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA), and in NYC with disciples of Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner. She has appeared at Lincoln Center, in regional theatres, and on national television. Her directing credits at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre include Blackout and Prayin’ Hands by Tom McClellan, Michael Moss’s Twosome, Kimberly Brown’s Re: Pirth, Karen Zacarias’s The Barechested Man, Joyce VanDyke’s Love in the Gulf, and Patricia Smith’s Life After Motown. Snodgrass has taught at the Harvard Extension School, Wellesley College, Brandeis University, M.I.T., and The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard, among others. A Virginia Center for Creative Arts fellow, she holds two B.A. degrees from Kansas University and Wichita State University, respectively, and a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Boston University. She is the recipient of the Leonides A. Nickole Theatre Educator of the Year Award form the New England theater Conference, and the Milan Stitt Award for Outstanding Teacher of Playwriting from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Burgess Clark

Educational Director

BURGESS CLARK is a 20-year professional theatre educator, Clark was nominated in 1991 as a “Distinguished Teacher in the Arts” by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts for encouraging and supporting students with exceptional artistic achievement. Burgess has taught for the University of Hawaii and acted as Director of Theatre for The Mid-Pacific Institute. He also served as Director of Education for the Honolulu Theatre for Youth and was the Director of Theatre at the Perry-Mansfield School of the Arts in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. From 1988-94, Clark was the National Instructor for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/Office of Very Special Arts, working with special populations and those who educate them. Five of his students have won the National Young Playwrights' Award. An accomplished writer, Burgess completed work in 2000 on the Emmy-nominated documentary series Part of the Family for PBS, hosted by Gary Burghoff. Most recently, he was the recipient of the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild's 2000 Julie Harris Award for his play, The Ivory Alphabet. Burgess was also honored at the 15th Annual William Inge Theatre Festival as the "New Voice in American Theatre." In 1999, he was awarded the Vermont Playwright's Award for his drama, The Touch. Purple Hearts was produced in San Francisco and toured to the Edinburgh Theatre Festival in Scotland where it placed among the "Best of Fest." A member of the Dramatists’ Guild, Burgess has won several other playwriting awards, including "Best Play" from the National Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award for playwriting and a Special Services Achievement Award from the U.S. Army for Purple Hearts. Burgess’ other works include Down Came the Rain, Relative Strangers, The Velveteen Rabbit, Island of the Blue Dolphins and most currently a new adaptation of Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales for the National Theatre of the Deaf. He is a member of the board of the New England Theatre Conference, and the Artistic Director of the Boston Children’s Theatre.

John B. Welch

Management Consultant

JOHN B. WELCH, Management Consultant, was former Managing Director and Chief Editor of Baker’s Plays in Boston. He is one of the founders of StageSource, The Alliance of Theatre Artists and Producers, and is the recipient of Boston’s first Theatre Hero Award in 2000. He has been a panelist for the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Boston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. Jack has been a guest speaker for The Dramatists’ Guild of America, The Educational Theatre Association and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. He is now working independently, representing playwrights in production on the national and international stage.

Toby Schine

Education Consultant

TOBY SCHINE’s, Education Consultant, directing credits include Chamber Music at Peoples Academy (VT), A Play Called Noah's Flood at Addison Repertory Theatre (VT), Mother Night at Reed College (Portland,OR). As an actor, Toby's favorite projects include Endgame, Travesties, Amerika!, and Happy End. Toby has also served as an administrator in arts education at the UNBOUND Program (Morrisville, VT) and has worked with the VT Rural Partnership, Vermont Young Playwright's Festival, and 21st Century Program to develop arts programming and opportunities for youth in Central VT. Toby is the Producing Director of the Boston Children’s Theatre. When he's not teaching classes or involved in a production, he enjoys heading outdoors to hike, climb or go canoeing.

Steven Barkhimer

STEVEN BARKHIMER received the John Cauble Award for Best Short Play of 2009 in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. His one-man show, Yule Laugh, Yule Cry was performed in December 2009, and is currently working on a six-episode theatre piece which is targeted to open in early 2011. His full-length plays include Tongue Out of Hand and The Fishbowl, and he is the author of a collection of original music called Time Was. He has taught courses in writing, acting, philosophy, literature, theatre, mathematics, history, and adult education at Boston University, Worcester State College, Cambridge College, Huntington Theatre, and the China Institute at the University of Massachusetts.

Dan Hunter

DAN HUNTER is a founding partner of Hunter Higgs, LLC, an advocacy and communications firm specializing in cultural non-profits. He is the former executive director of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH) a statewide advocacy and education group. An award-winning playwright, songwriter and humorist, Hunter also has 25 years’ experience in politics and arts advocacy, serving as Director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (a cabinet appointment requiring Senate confirmation) and running a successful advertising and political consultancy firm in Des Moines. As director of MAASH, Hunter successfully campaigned for cultural facilities funding and an increase of 70% in cultural funding during a time when the total state budget increased by only 14%. Hunter is the author of two books, Let’s Keep Des Moines a Private Joke and The Search for Iowa (& We Don’t Grow Potatoes). He has written several plays including Un Tango en La Noche and La Mujer Sin Cara (The Woman Without a Face). His play The Monkey King was a finalist for the 2004 Heideman Award from the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Hunter’s play, Red Elm, was produced to critical acclaim in December 2005 at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, one of three plays nominated for the Best New Play of the Year award by the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE). The Massachusetts Association of Arts Educators named Hunter the Friend of Arts Education for 2010. Hunter was managing director of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre at Boston University from 1999 to 2002. Hunter has taught playwriting at Boston University since then, and has had one-act plays published in Baker’s Plays, including Mirror Man, Internal Medicine and The Monkey King. He is the composer and writer of Picture Postcard Musicale, based on the texts of picture postcards from 1906-1910. Hunter has performed a one-man show of topical humor in original song, and has made numerous radio and television appearances including ABC’s Good Morning America, National Public Radio, BBC, and CNN Nightly News. Hunter previously served in the Iowa State Governor’s cabinet as Director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. On his departure, The Des Moines Register wrote in an editorial: “[Hunter] instilled a renewed vigor in a neglected area of state government. He made people think about art as a way of life…He was able to hopscotch across the state with a message, not from a bureaucrat, but from someone intimately involved with the arts, someone who understands the nuances of the arts community and of those who support the arts.” From 1980 to 1997, Hunter owned and operated Dan Hunter Creative Services. He earned his B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, and his M.A. from Boston University. In August 2005, he also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD.

Janet Kenney

JANET KENNEY’s most recent world premiere, a “one woman show for three or more actresses,” Theresa at Home, was co-produced by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre and Village Theatre Project in 2007, just weeks after her collection of short plays, More Than What opened up at CentaStage in Boston. All of the plays in the cycle have individually produced and several have been published. Some other full-length plays include My Heart & My Flesh (Coyote Theatre, Boston, Stage 3 in CA), Globus Hystericus (commissioned and workshopped by Theater Emory in Atlanta), as well as one-acts and ten minute pieces that have been produced all over the country. She’s presently working on a memoir called Only When I Breathe, about her thirty years of lupus. She has a B.A. from The University of Massachusetts/Boston in Theatre Arts and a M.A. in Playwriting from Boston University and has taught theater, acting and English in several Boston colleges and universities. Janet is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.

John Kuntz

JOHN KUNTZ is a founding company member of the Actors Shakespeare Project, where he was seen as Peter Quince in A Midsummer Nights Dream, multiple roles in Timon of Athens, Don Pedro/Verges in Much Ado About Nothing, Trinculo in The Tempest, Pandaulf in King John, Tamora in Titus Andronicus, Autolycus in The Winter's Tale, Lucio/Froth in Measure for Measure, Sebastian in 12th Night, Bertram/The Clown in All's Well That Ends Well, and the title role in Richard III. NY credits include Mrs. Daigle in The Bad Seed (Ohio Theatre), Kurt in Jump/Rope (which he also wrote) with Square Peg Productions at Urban Stages, and his one-person shows Starfuckers (Ohio Theatre and NY Fringe) and Freaks! (Solo Arts Group). Recent Boston credits include Heisenberg in Copenhagen and multiple roles in the world premiere of The Communist Dracula Pageant (ART); Janet and Frick in After School Special (which he also wrote) and the title role in Mr. Marmalade (Company One); numerous productions of The SantaLand Diaries (IRNE Award ˆ Best Solo Performance); Katurian in the New England premiere of The Pillowman, Estragon in Waiting for Godot, the title role in Scapin, Austin in True West and the Emcee in Cabaret (all with The New Repertory Theatre), Aston in The Caretaker, 20 roles in How I Got That Story and multiple roles in Mere Mortals (all with The Nora Theatre Company); Jane/Lord Edgar in The Mystery of Irma Vep, Carl in The Baltimore Waltz, Nathan Leopold in Never the Sinner, and 40 roles in Fully Committed (all with The Lyric Stage), Voice #1 in Betty's Summer Vacation (The Huntington Theatre Company) and three seasons with Commonwealth Shakespeare, appearing in Henry V (Fluellen), 12th Night (Sir Andrew) and Hamlet (Guildenstern/Osric). Film: The Red Right Hand (Roger), Anathema (Neil; Best Actor Award - Festival Du Cinema du Bruxelles). John is the author of 14 full-length plays, including The Superheroine Monologues (co-written with Rick Park), Sing Me to Sleep, Freaks, Starfuckers, After School Special, My Life with the Kringle Kult, Miss Price, The Hotel Nepenthe, Glitterati, Emerald City, Jasper Lake, Jump/Rope and Actorz with a Z. He received both an Elliot Norton Award and New York International Fringe Festival Award for his solo show Starfuckers and his plays Sing Me To Sleep and Freaks! both received Elliot Norton Awards for "Outstanding Fringe Production". He was an inaugural Playwrighting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company and a Fellow at the O‚Neill Center in 2007. His play Jasper Lake received both the Michael Kanin and Paula Vogel National Playwrighting Awards, with productions at the Kennedy Center (Washington DC) and the New York Fringe Festival. His newest solo show, The Salt Girl, received the 2010 Elliot Norton Award for Best New Play and was recently performed at the Boston Playwrights Theatre, directed and designed by David Gammons. His newest play, The Hotel Nepenthe, will be produced by the Actors Shakespeare Project in Winter, 2011 and his short play, RED, will appear in the play Grimm, an evening of short plays inspired by Grimm fairy tales, with Company One, Summer 2010. He teaches at Suffolk University and is on the faculty of The Boston Conservatory.

Ginger Lazarus

GINGER LAZARUS is an award-winning playwright whose work has been frequently produced in her native Boston and beyond. Her most recent project was A Blessing and a Curse: A Duet of Plays on Motherhood, an evening of two one-act plays presented by Spiced Wine Productions. Her play Matter Familias received an IRNE nomination for Best New Play of 2004; other honors include the 1999 John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award for MOCKBA: A Play About Moscow and selection as a ten-minute play finalist in the 2002 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for Shooting Sparks. Her plays have been produced locally by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Centastage, Queer Soup, Playwrights’ Platform, and the Boston Theater Marathon, and have been featured nationally in Untitled Theater’s 24/7 Festival (New York), Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Theater Festival, Pan Theater Ten Minute Play Festival (San Francisco), Bloody Unicorn Theater Company’s Lesbian Shorts (Tucson), and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference Play Lab (Valdez, Alaska). Two of her short plays also appeared at the Warehouse Theatre and Canal Café Theatre in London. Ginger holds a master’s degree in playwriting from Boston University and has taught at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Emerson College. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and StageSource. Plays, bio, and more at www.gingerlazarus.com

Melinda Lopez

MELINDA LOPEZ is a playwright and actress. Her plays include ORCHIDS TO OCTOPI, (Central Square Theatre), CAROLINE IN JERSEY (Williamstown Theatre Festival), ALEXANDROS (Laguna Playhouse) and SONIA FLEW, which won the Elliot Norton Award for “Best New Play”, and the IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) for “Best Play” and “Best Production”. It premiered at the Huntington Theatre (dir. Nicholas Martin), and has subsequently been performed in numerous cities, and for radio broadcast. Melinda is also the author of GARY (Steppenwolf First Look Repertory, Boston Playwrights Theatre,) and a translation of BLOOD WEDDING, (Suffolk University.) Her other award winning plays include GOD SMELLS LIKE A ROAST PIG (Women on Top Festival, Elliot Norton Award-- Outstanding Solo Performance,) MIDNIGHT SANDWICH/MEDIANOCHE, (Coconut Grove Playhouse), THE ORDER OF THINGS (CentaStage, Kennedy Center Fund for New Plays) HOW DO YOU SPELL HOPE? (Underground Railway Theatre.) Ms Lopez was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a “promising new voice in American Theatre”. She has received commissions from the Laguna Playhouse, South Coast Rep, and the National Institutes of Health. Ms. Lopez has served as a panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts, and has enjoyed residencies with Sundance, UCROSS Foundation, the Lark, the New York Theatre Workshop and Harvard University. She teaches theatre and performance at Wellesley College, and playwriting at Boston University. Ms. Lopez has also appeared in regional theatres across the country, and works in film and radio. She makes her home in Boston.

K. Alexa Mavromatis

K. ALEXA MAVROMATIS’s play THE BACK ROOM was the 2008 third place winner of the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award, presented by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. She is also the author of several short plays including BASTARD (a finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Heideman Award in 2008), BONE CHINA (produced internationally and included in the Smith & Kraus anthology 2006: The Best Ten-Minute Plays for Two Actors), and a new post-apocalyptic comedy, JINXED. Alexa is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Theatre Communications Group, and Rhombus Playwrights.

Matt Mayerchak

MATT MAYERCHAK’s short play, Empties, was a finalist for the Heidemann Award from the National Ten Minute Theatre Contest, and was also produced at the Boston Theatre Marathon and the Source Festival in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Boston University's graduate playwriting program, and has had several other short plays produced at the Boston Theatre Marathon and the Devanaughn Theatre's Dragonfly festival. His full-length play, A Month of Somedays, had a staged reading at the Boston Playwright's Theatre. His 30-minute radio play, A Night's Work, was broadcast nationally on NPR Playhouse and awarded an honorable mention by the European Broadcasting Union. He also served as a producer for The Radio Play, a series of 26 half-hour radio plays that were co-produced by the BBC and broadcast on NPR.

Ronan Noone

RONAN NOONE immigrated from Ireland in 1994. His first play The Lepers of Baile Baiste (Samuel French, 2002 )was workshopped at Boston Playwrights Theatre with Noble Laureate Derek Walcott. It won the National Playwriting Award at the American College Theatre Festival and played at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. In Boston, it won the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Best New Play, was a critics pick with The LA Times, Jeff nominated in Chicago and played the Phil Bosakowski Theatre in New York. His second play, the Steinberg nominated The Blowin of Baile Gall, (DPS) was produced at BPT and the Irish Arts Center in New York,(Gabriel Byrne, Producer), won the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding new Script and IRNE for Best new Play. Noone was commissioned as a playwrighting fellow by the Huntington Theatre Company, under the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays. During this Fellowship he wrote Brendan (DPS), IRNE for Best New Play, which had it’s World Premier at the Huntington Theatre. Other plays include The Atheist (DPS) which premiered at Center Stage NY with Chris Pine. It opened in London at Theatre 503 with Ben Porter, and played the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston with Campbell Scott in the Fall of 2007. It also played Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2008, and was co Produced with Ted Mann’s Circle in the Square Theatre and The Culture Project, opening at Barrow Street Theatre, NY. His most recent play Little Black Dress opened at Boston Playwrights Theatre in the Fall of 2009. He has attended and presented work at Sundance Theatre Lab in Utah, Theatre Masters in Aspen Colorado, New York Stage and Film at Vassar College and The Lark in New York City and Vermont. He has written numerous one act plays - Amereka, Sheeet, The Mutton Bandit Molloy, Enough, Headbanger, The Shit Stirring Machine, A Cup of Tea, and adapted Brendan and Little Black Dress into screenplays.

Masha Obolensky

Masha Obolensky’s plays have been produced by TimeLine Theatre (Not Enough Air, Chicago, Joseph Jefferson-nominated “Best New Work”), The Nora Theatre (Not Enough Air, Cambridge, “The Boston Globe 10 Best of 2010” ), Arts Emerson (Building a Character, Boston), the Kennedy Center (Girls Play, D.C. ), Access Theatre (Natasha and Andrei, NYC), Here Arts Center (Historic Beauty,NYC), Source Festival D.C. (Girls Play), Samuel French OOB Festival (Girls Play) and the Boston Theatre Marathon (Girls Play). She has an M.A. from Emerson College and an MFA from Boston University. Masha is currently a Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellow and received the 2010 Pen New England Discovery Award. She was a recent recipient of a 2011 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship (finalist), the 2010 Kennedy Center Michael Kanin Award, Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, and the Robert Pinsky Global Playwriting Fellowship. Girls Play will be published in two upcoming anthologies. The full-length version, The Girl Problem, was awarded a 2010 WordBRIDGE fellowship.

John Shea

JOHN SHEA is a former Huntington Theatre Playwrighting Fellow. His play “Erin Go Bragh-less,” (National Playwright’s Conference, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center,) is part of a trilogy of plays that includes, “The Hill,” (Boston University’s New Play Initiative,) and “Claire Silva,” (Huntington Theatre’s Breaking Ground Festival, as well as Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Fridays @ 3 series.) Other works are, “Comp,” (Boston Playwright’s Theatre, and London’s Tristan Bates Theatre Company,) “Junkie,” (commissioned by the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays,) “Faces of the Dead,” “The Painter,” and “Aberdeen.” John’s works has been published by Smith and Kraus in their “Monologues for Actors,” series and the Boston Theatre Marathon XI,” anthology.

Donna Sorbello

DONNA SORBELLO has worked in theatre for over 25 years, as a playwright, actress and sometime director. Her playwriting productions include "Out Takes" at Equity Library Theater at Lincoln Center, and also at Foot Of the Mountain Theatre (staged reading),. Her teleplay "Jenny's Joy" was one of three finalists for the WCVB Prime Time contest and won the Robert J. Pickering award. "Let Freedom Sing" was performed on Cape Cod as part of the Womens' Peace and Justice Festival, "Salvation" presented in Hovey Players short plays festival, "THe Visit" was in the Women On Top Festival as well as being a finalist in the Hoevemeyer Competition in Ct. and "Waiting For Willy Marshall Jones" was part of the new play series at Priscilla Beach THeatre. "The Educated" had a production under A & D and P Company, and "Over the Beach Wall" was in the Boston Playwrights Summer Festival. "Gentlemen Husbandry" was in the Boston Theatre Marathon (and also published in the Marathon book of plays) and was a finalist for the N.E. College Kennedy Center Awards as well as being produced by Image Theatre. Her plays "Tom and Tennessee", "Facades/Balances" and "Reunion", all had staged readings at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. As an actress, Ms. Sorbello has appeared in NYC, across the U.S. and locally at many of the professional New England Theatres from Huntington Theatre to smaller venues. Her roles have ranged from Shakespeare ("King Lear", "The Tempest") to Williams ("Glass Menagerie", "Orpheus Descending" for which she won an IRNE award), to Coward ("Private Lives" "Hay Fever") to more contemporary pieces ("Unexpected Man" at Gloucester Stage). She was recently seen in the Boston Theatre Marathon and as Ana in "Clean House" at New Century Theatre. Presently she can be seen in the Ricky Gervais film "Invention Of Lying" as Jennifer Garner's mother, and in "Hachi", and the soon to be released independent film "Mulberry Tree". She has taught for six years at BHCC after two years at both Boston Univ and Quincy College. She is a graduate of Emerson College (Dr. Tom Haas), Boston University Masters Program in Playwriting (Derek Walcott and Kate Snodgrass) and also trained and assisted with Nikos Psacharopoulos at Circle In the Square Workshop, NYC.

Michael Towers

MICHAEL TOWERS is the Artistic Director of Westford Academy Theater Arts (WATA), a thriving public high school theater department in Westford, MA. In conjunction with guest professionals from the Boston area Michael produces and directs four mainstage and four black box productions each year showcasing the talents of his one hundred and fifty theater students. In 2008 and 2010, Michael’s productions of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa and Arthur Kopit’s Chamber Music were named the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild’s State Finals Winner. In 2009, Michael earned his MFA in Playwriting from Boston University under the instruction of Richard Schotter, Melinda Lopez, Ronan Noone and Kate Snodgrass. His full length comedy Five Down One Across will premiere at The Boston Playwrights’ Theater in October of 2010. His short play Loaves and Fishes recently appeared in the Boston Theater Marathon XII.

Sinan Unel

SINAN UNEL’s plays have been produced at: The Huntington Theatre Company, The Long Wharf Theater, The Arcola Theatre (London), Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, The Lark Theatre Company (New York), The Gate Theatre (London), Provincetown Theatre Company, Provincetown Theatreworks, Landes-theater (Germany), Theater Kosmos (Austria), Theatre at Boston Court (Pasadena, CA). Sinan has been awarded The John Gassner Memorial Award, The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, and was a fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company from 2003 to 2005. His script Race Point was the winner of the 2001 New Century Writer Award for best screenplay.

Joyce Van Dyke

JOYCE VAN DYKE’s The Oil Thief received Boston’s 2009 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script. It was produced by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (2008) and originally commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre / Alfred P. Sloan Science & Technology Project. Her most recent work, Deported / a dream play, had readings in 2009 at New Repertory Theatre and the Huntington Theatre as part of the Huntington’s Breaking Ground Festival of New Play Readings. The true story of the playwright’s Armenian grandmother and her close friend, the play deals with the legacy of the Armenian genocide, with the action spanning over a century and ending in the future. This play is a collaborative project developed over the past three years with a company of actors and director Judy Braha, head of the MFA Directing Program in Boston University’s School of Theater. A Girl’s War, Joyce’s award-winning play about the impact on one family of an unresolved middle-eastern civil war, was produced at San Francisco’s Thick House (Golden Thread Productions, 2009), New Repertory Theatre (world premiere 2003), and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (2001), where it was named by the Boston Globe as one of the “Top Ten” plays of the year. A Girl’s War also won the John Gassner Playwriting Award and the Provincetown Theatre Company Playwriting Award; and it was nominated for the American Theatre Critics Association’s Steinberg New Play Award, as well as being designated a Finalist for the 2003 Jane Chambers Award. It was published in the anthology Contemporary Armenian American Drama (2004). Other productions include Love in the Gulf (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 1996); The Earring, published in Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays (2007) and first produced in the Boston Theater Marathon (Calderwood Pavilion, 2005); and Not My Real Mother, about the historic meeting between Tennessee Williams and Mother Teresa (Boston Theater Marathon, Calderwood Pavilion, 2007). Joyce Van Dyke is a Huntington Theatre Company Playwriting Fellow (2007-2009), a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Playwriting Finalist Grant, and a graduate of Boston University’s playwriting program. She attended Stanford (BA) and the University of Virginia (PhD). Her academic awards include the Shattuck Teaching Award at Harvard Extension School where she is a lecturer on Shakespeare, and a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies; her articles have been published in numerous scholarly journals. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and StageSource.

M. Lynda Robinson

M. LYNDA ROBINSON attended the Master’s Program in Playwriting at Boston University. She has had her 10-minute plays produced in five of the Boston Annual Theatre Marathons. She has had two of the BTM 10-minute plays published by Baker’s Plays in their Marathon anthologies, and her 3rd short play was published in 2008 in “The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2007, 2 Actors” by Smith & Kraus, Inc. The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival selected her 10-minute plays for their Festivals in New England and in the Mid-West for three years during her time at B.U. Lynda also received a Playwriting Award for one of the short plays from “Wives” from the Kennedy Ctr. Amer. College Theatre Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska in February, 2002. Her full-length play, “Wives” was produced at the University of Wichita after winning their national playwriting contest, as well as at the Boston Playwrights Theatre. Her plays have also been seen at the “Women on Top” Festival at the Boston Center for the Arts, the Hovey Players “Summer Shorts,” Blackburn Performing Arts, The Actors’ Studio in Newburyport, Fort Point Theatre Channel, and the Bookstore in Gloucester. She recently was one of 12 women playwrights to be selected for Our Voices IV at Regis College. Lynda has been a reader for the past 2 years for the Firehouse New Play Festival in Newburyport, Young Playwrights Mentor for the past 3 years at the Huntington Theatre, a Mentor for the Mass. Young Playwrights Project, and has adjudicated the Mass. H.S. Drama Festival for 6 years. Her newest play, “Something About Swans” was produced by Blackburn Performing Arts in March, 2009 at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.